Las denominaciones de ‘parir’ y ‘malparir’ en la historia del léxico

Abstract

This article presents the history of the words parir, dar a luz and alumbrar as synonyms for the meaning ‘parir’ and abortar, malparir or mal parir and mover as terms to designate the action ‘malparir’. The lexicographic history is revised in each of the cases taking into account both bilingual and monolingual dictionaries. Furthermore, the use of these words is analyzed in the texts, considering the chronology and the discursive tradition. The result of this study reveals the uniqueness of Spanish in comparison to other geographically close languages since Spanish employs the same lexia for people and animals. This is the main reason for the progressive rejection of the words parir and abortar which will be respectively replaced by dar a luz, alumbrar, malparir and mover. In addition to this, it is observed in the latter case —that of ‘malparir’— a circular process that the term abortar —initially rejected— has nowadays recovered as a clear reflection of the social change experienced in this respect.